Favor in the Unfavorable Moments of Life

God’s favor is on his children in every moment. He withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly. So how is it that his people still face so many unfavorable moments in life? This question is a sample of the much larger, commonly proposed question, “Why does God allow suffering in the world?” Though I dare not suggest that the answer is easy to explain, as it may not be fully realized until we stand before our Lord Jesus face-to-face, I do believe that truth can be found in the immutable, benevolent, sovereign character of God. I’ll save the attempt to tackle that question in writing for another day, but I will share my thoughts on God’s favor and purpose for any trial in life. Following are the day-by-day records of a 16-hour travel day from Vietnam to Cambodia that became a 4-day travel experience. I was impacted by the character of God and his presence with me in every moment of the journey. Below the stories are my reflections on the travel days which reminded me of God’s favor on his people.

Thursday, January 11th,  2024

We woke up at 4:00am to make our way to our bus’s departure location. After the bus company’s late arrival, we loaded up and headed from Da Nang, Vietnam toward the border of Vietnam and Cambodia. The bus ride itself was a wild ride, as we traveled at surprising speeds, had too few bathroom stops, and popped a tire. Upon arrival at the border, around 4:00pm, we learned that we cannot cross at that border because it is only an agriculture crossing. We rallied the squad in a circle to break the news that we’d be driving 13 hours overnight to get to the Moc Bai Border Station in the south of Vietnam. I was grateful and pleasantly surprised by their patient attitudes and flexibility with travel changes. We prayed and loaded the bus. The overnight bus ride was uneventful but frigid.

Friday, January 12th, 2024

We arrived at the Moc Bai Border Station about an hour before it opened, and we enjoyed the time to stretch our legs. Rallied by teams, with passports in hands, we made our way into the border station and approached the customs employees. It didn’t take long before we shuffled back out to the bus with the news that we would have to extend our visas at the immigration office in Ho Chi Minh City before we could leave the country, and that it would take 5-7 days to process the visas. So, we loaded the bus, prayed and worshipped the Lord, and drove 3 hours into the city.  Along the way, our travel agent worked hard to find us a hostel to stay at for a night.

When we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (now it’s 1:00pm on Friday) , we quickly dropped our bags off at the hotel and bussed over to the immigration office. It is no exaggeration to say that within 5 minutes, we’d received news that we could not extend our visas and/or leave by land. Instead, we were to book flights out of the country, and pay the visa overstay fee at the airport. With the new information, bussed the squad back to the hotel, joyfully said goodbye to the bus company, let the racers be free to rest or explore the city, and we (squad leaders) began to search for flight options. Soon, our travel agent found us flights out of Vietnam, one team to leave for Phnom Penh on Saturday afternoon and the others to leave early Sunday morning. With details finalized and flights booked, the squad leaders went to enjoy a dinner together. We rehydrated from that 30+ bus ride which stopped maybe 3 times!

Saturday, January 13th, 2024

Bright and early, the squad leaders gathered to worship and pray. It was a refreshing and unifying time for our team. With our free morning, we shared a meal, spent time seeking the Lord, and enjoyed connecting with one another. Dawson’s team ended up having a challenging time at the airport immigration office, and it took them longer than expected. Upon learning that during dinner, we decided to have the squad pack up and head to the airport Saturday night instead of 4am Sunday morning. Within an hour and a half, 35 racers and leaders were packed, checked out of the hotel, and at the airport. Grace and I went to the immigration office to plead our case and start the process of reconciling our overstayed visas.

The immigration officers were kind. We presented them with 35 overstayed passports, and explained to them our journey. We laughed together when I shared that I had studied criminal justice and immigration in university. Around 10pm, we paid the overstay fee for each racer, and they said to come back at 5am to each sign the reports before we could check in for our flight. This commenced our overnight stay in the Tan Son Nhat International airport. Racers blew up their sleeping pads, played card games, read their bibles, and walked laps around the airport lobby.

Sunday, January 14th, 2024

At 5am we returned to customs, and we signed the reports without an issue. We made our way to check in for our flights and found that the booked flights only provided one checked bag, and that we’d have to pay cash for our carry-ons. There were ATM runs, lithium battery searches, and security checks. By God’s grace, our immigration officer friend let us through the ‘Crew’ line at customs, which likely saved us an hour in line and potentially saved us from missing the flights.

With not much time to spare, the entire squad made it to the gate. After recovering a squadmate’s lost boarding pass and making a quick coffee run, we loaded the plane. Our swift, one-hour flight landed us in Siem Reap and we headed to the visa and customs lines. The process was smooth upon arrival to Cambodia. We were picked up by a bus and drove an hour to the AIM base. After an orientation (now it’s noon on Sunday), the squad leaders headed to buy sim cards and pull cash for our team’s food budget. We spent the evening trying to keep ourselves awake to sleep well through the night. Ministry began first thing on Monday morning!

Reflections…

Even in the unfavorable moments of life, the character of the Lord remains the same. Throughout the travel day, we often marveled at the favor of God, which I was acutely aware was upon us. As his children, goodness and mercy surely follow us all the days of our lives. It’s an awesome thing to be a part of the kingdom of God. It tends to feel very upside down from the world. Losing is really gaining, giving is better than receiving, the last will be first, the humble inherit the earth, the sinner is saved, the sick are healed, and strength is perfected in weakness. So, when things go awry, shouldn’t it be our first thought to heed the Holy Spirit and seek the tender voice of Jesus to see the perfect will of the Father revealed? We would be amiss to lean on our own understanding when our Maker offers to give us wisdom without measure.

Upon reflection of this travel day, I see the Lord’s sovereignty in the unfolding of events, even when it transparently felt like everything that could have gone wrong did, every plan failed, and every moment was unfavorable. After going through security in the airport, I felt at the end of myself and that one more change would be the straw to break my back. But his strength was perfected in my weakness, and he showed himself present and faithful. In reality, the changes afforded us space to worship God, to seek him in prayer, connect with the other leaders and to fellowship with our squadmates. We were given these moments as an opportunity to tangibly practice thankfulness in all circumstances, surrendering to his plans, patience in unfavorable moments, and counting joy the trials of various kinds. With God, no time is wasted. He uses every circumstance to show us himself, to refine us, to take us from one degree of glory to the next. My prayer is that the experiences of this travel day produced fruit in us that will be revealed in the coming unfavorable moments of our lives that are unbeknownst to you and me. Living through moments like these produce a steadfastness in us, that, having its full effect, presents us perfect and complete, lacking in nothing! The unfavorable is not void of blessing. Truly, God’s favor is eternally upon us.